The Layout and Strategy of Aperture

I installed Aperture on my Mac 6 weeks ago. And I am embarrassed at my slowness in comprehending the program. My initial foray was guided by the 200-page 'Exploring AP' book . But I wasn't really getting much insight. So I would, from time to time, launch into the 600-page User Guide. My eyes would glaze over.

A lot of my career involved research, so I love to dig. Then I learned about the Apple Pro Training Series book used for Apple Certification training. I bought a used copy on Abebooks for little more than $10. As an aside, I usually don't absorb much from video tutorials. Largely because the visuals showing mouse cursor movements go along too quickly. I miss a lot of vital cues.

I have to report that the logic of AP is now starting to sink in. These are just my thoughts, but please correct me if I am wrong. Aperture relies on tons of keyboard shortcuts and buttons that enable a savvy user (not me... at this point) to plow through 1000 wedding pictures and cull the keepers and select the best of the best. That is laborious work, aside from making adjustments, and a professional is faced with deadlines, say after a wedding.

PhotoMechanic, by Camera Bits, shoots for the same objective. This dawned on me after reading up a little on the LightTable function. It got me to thinking about the duplication of processes with multiple buttons, commands, keyboard shortcuts. All for the sake of speed.

Of, so it seems to me. Am I wrong? And I haven't even played much with the Adjustment tools. ( I have the NIK Collections plugins to help_